Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Public Libraries: Buildings

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what recent discussions she has had with (a) libraries and (b) local councils on the potential presence of reinforced autoclave aerated concrete (RAAC) in their library buildings.

Sir John Whittingdale: The Standing Committee on Structural Safety issued a safety alert on the failure of RAAC planks on 1 May 2019.Individual building owners and managers are responsible for health and safety, including responding to safety alerts such as this. Local authorities, like other building owners, are advised to follow available professional guidance.As buildings are identified as having suspected or confirmed instances of RAAC, building owners and managers should follow the guidance to put appropriate mitigation in place.The delivery of public library services, including the maintenance of the buildings through which that is done, is a responsibility for upper-tier local authorities under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.The Local Government Association (LGA) has advised members to check whether any buildings in their estates have RAAC, to ensure it can be identified, assessed, and responded to accordingly. This is accessible on the LGA website and in line with the guidance from the Institution of Structural Engineers. If further buildings are identified as having suspected or confirmed RAAC, building owners and managers should follow the guidance to put appropriate mitigation in place.

Department of Health and Social Care

Smoking: Health Services

Dr Rupa Huq: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) providing additional funding for services that help people stop smoking and (b) using proceeds from the tobacco industry to fund smoking cessation services.

Neil O'Brien: The Public Health Grant will increase over the current spending review period, rising to nearly £3.6 billion in 2024/25 and continues to support local authorities to provide a range of public health services, including stop smoking services.Latest figures from 2021/22 show that local authorities reported spend of £68 million on local authority led stop smoking services, with further reported spend of nearly £12 million on wider tobacco control.Local authorities are best placed to identify the groups within their community where resources should be focused to reduce smoking harms. We continue to work with HM Treasury regarding tobacco taxation and revenue funding, including reviewing options to raise additional funds for smoking cessation services.

Department of Health and Social Care: Data Protection

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to Schedule 12 of the Data Protection and Digital Information (No. 2) Bill introduced on 8 March 2023, whether any IT provider notified his (a) Department and (b) agencies and other public bodies of an intention to pursue legal action if they were the subject of a statement of censure for non-compliance with information standards of the type described in Section 251ZC of that Bill between 6 April 2015 and 5 April 2023.

Will Quince: No IT provider has notified the Department, or as far as we are aware, any agency or other public body, of an intention to pursue legal action if they were the subject of a statement of censure.The proposed changes in the Bill will ensure that IT suppliers involved in the processing of health or care information can be made accountable for meeting information standards. Engagement with health and care stakeholders, including IT providers, has been taking place since July 2022 to gather queries, concerns and recommendations to ensure sufficient considerations in the implementation design.IT providers may incur additional costs associated with complying with information standards, but these are likely to vary between IT providers, depending on a number of factors. Proper consideration will be given to the need to set standards that are reasonable and achievable.It is expected that IT providers will then factor in the cost of meeting them. The intention is also to take a phased approach to implementation in order to minimise costs to IT providers as far as possible.